Hockey fever

Two weeks have passed and once again it is time to bring you guys up to date on what has been going on in the good ol’ 514. The amount of Halloween junk in stores made me think the holiday is today, but it’s still a month away. Words cannot even begin to describe the disappointment: I had even prepared a pumpkin dance with which to convince Niko to buy a pumpkin the next time we’d be going to Loblaws for groceries.

My costume for aforementioned dance

Blade into the ice, the name of the newspaper (Translation courtesy of Google Translate)

First things first: In Candy Crush Saga I passed Level THE HOCKEY SEASON IS UPON US. As I am writing this there’s a bit more than 24 hours left before the Molson Canadian NHL Face-Off in Centre Bell, aka NHL season opener Toronto - Montréal. A true sports classic, this passionate encounter of these two historic teams is being celebrated in this city with a proper grand event at Place des Festivals. Finnish hockey tycoon Kale Kummola could learn a thing or two from the Montréalaises about making ice hockey truly a special event for everyone, even though it seems he got the pricing of game tickets right.

Having watched a good number of pre-season games online (anyone who has been to our place knows that our Cablw Tv [sic] doesn’t actually show hockey, or anything worth watching whatsoever)  we decided to go to the legendary sports bar Chez Serge to watch Devils play Habs last Monday. To give a general idea for those who haven’t had the pleasure of being to this awesome joint, let us tell that the bar features a mechanical bull, stripper poles on the bar (for the victory dances), a number of moose heads adorned with a healthy number of brassieres as well as a shot roulette where you can win anything from a six pack of beer to a spanking by one of the barmaids. So truly we are talking about the king of all sports bars.

Our visit also coincided with our roommate’s zero-drink-week bet ending. Without going into an unnecessary amount of detail, the evening soon derailed into vodka shots, steel buckets filled with beer, public drinking (“Yes I know there’s a $140 fine for this sir, it’s just that I simply don’t care that much”), intense conversations with a gay chef, and thoughts of being “totally able to beat the bar record on the mechanical bull.” All of this was followed by a massive morkkis, moral hangover. Needless to say, no previous hangover of any magnitude can stop the same from happening again should the Habs beat Leafs tomorrow. In all honesty, it’s a more than likely scenario. #victoryshots #whatagreatconcept

To go with all the hockey craze that has been coloring our lives in the past two weeks we also started a fantasy hockey league with the housemates. How wrong can you go with having Ovechkin and one of the greatest D-men ever to walk the streets of Montréal, in addition to Janne “suomenkaataja” Niinimaa, P.K. “Musta-Pekka” Subban, on your team?

The man, the legend

Le tourism

During the last couple of weeks I also had the chance to visit two major Canadian cities, the nation’s capital Ottawa as well as the cute and adorable Quebec City. Ottawa was a neat town; especially the ByWard Market area was to my liking. The city was fairly void of tourists as it was a Wednesday, but the peaceful atmosphere made an impression. I also noted that the parliament buildings looked like Hogwarts. British Empire much, eh? Would recommend for a one day or one night stay.

#nofilter

As weeks roll by, fall is finally here. Though the temperatures resemble more mid-June to a Finn, the foliage is still going all #fab #fallcatalogue. La Belle Provence is renowned for its beautiful fall colors, and we got to experience this to the fullest when visiting Quebec City this weekend. The city is built on a very steep hill, so prepare for some walking, which also happens to be the best way to see the city. Other means of transportation include elevators, horse carriages and ecolobusses (the eco-friendly offspring from a drunken one-night stand of a bus and a Mini Cooper). As mentioned, the hills are steep so getting around in the winter might prove a difficult task. For a Scandinavian seeing a snowy city isn’t really a big deal, so I’d personally recommend visiting the city in October. The quaint little streets filled with restaurants and shops as well as the city’s large parks make it a must-see for anyone coming to Montréal for a longer stay. The place also has a ton to see for the history buffs. Hell, I’d even recommend visiting it from one of the lamer provinces, such as Ontario or Nova Scotia.

Should you choose to visit the city with Hechange like we did, you also get to see the city’s biggest and best club. For the Helsinkians, you can get a mental image by combining the dance floor from Circus with the pricing of Tiger and the customers of Amarillo & Baarikärpänen. Judging by this description, most of you will know whether this jewel is for you or not. Hotel room after parties with the other exchange students were reminiscent of high school party cruises to Stockholm, though this time one didn’t need to worry about falling overboard at 5 AM, even though the omnipresent fear of drowning was still there.

Niko’s comment: The customers at the club were actually a comfortable blend of Vanha kettu and Vantaan Onnela. For those who are not familiar with Vanha kettu, the bar is located in the heart of Helsinki and is filled with mid-age homeless and the so called “homeless” – prospects that are annually drafted by the bar. On a side note, Ville has improved his chances for the rookie draft by moving to the same block.

Shopping-wise there isn’t as much to do as in Toronto, but I still managed to bring home a six-pack of Moosehead Lager and a Blue Jays cap (true fans show their colors even during the off-season), so at least I got the essentials covered. If you’re a hockey merchandise kind of person, or just a hockey-hipster™, there are tons of boutiques selling Nordiques memorabilia.  

Montmorency Falls

Niko’s take on School Work

Two weeks ago, we wrote about our university courses and gave a short description of them. Now, I’ll give you, our faithful readers, a short glimpse of a couple of simulations that are a part of the logistics and strategic management courses.

Logistics Simulation – What started out as a collective sigh of utter despair as our group tried to mash together logistical plans and how to actually manage an inventory, has so far turned into great success and thus far we’ve only fallen short to the game itself. Look out skynet, I’m coming for your ass.

 Now, I’ve gone through operations management courses where I was taught to use this formula for that and that for this etc. However, during the first week of this simulation I just threw all of that theoretical mumbling away and used common sense. So far, so good right? If your product is in demand, you supply it dumbass, you do not look at equations and go “Oh, well I guess I don’t want to get paid”. I’m not saying to ignore the math, obviously that’s the lifeline of logistics, but still, don’t blindly look at numbers.

In itself, the simulation is a fairly simple supply chain management game where we need to manage logistics costs and be able to meet demand on time in order to not lose customers. Going into further detail would probably bore all the readers so instead, here’s a picture of Finnish soap opera legend, Ismo:

  

Strategic Management Simulation (Reader Discretion Advised) – Ok, this simulation was something we were looking forward to, and to be frank, still are. We managed to make fairly good decisions in the practice round, and ended up with a good nominal share value. Now, the game itself requires quite a lot of attention to detail and is actually surprisingly vast in terms of the decisions you can make. In short, you can basically decide everything from advertising campaigns to employee benefits and CSR initiatives. The game evaluates your nominal share price based on three factors: Profit, People, and Planet, but how we see it is like this:

1.       Profit

2.       Irrelevant

3.       Irrelevant

Going into detail on this game would be like trying to explain to girls what the offside-rule is in sports, it just isn’t worth it.Therefore, here are some nice remarks about the simulation:

-         It was made by the French, so it blows.

Peace I’m out.

  

Working hard, Hardly working

Hey peoples

Long time no see, right? Not that anyone cares though. For the last two weeks we`ve been pretty busy with procrastinating, we even bought an American football and started training in order to go pro next year. All jokes aside, our studies have really kicked off now and we`re still trying to juggle with the fact that attendance is pretty much mandatory, especially since I do not plan on selling my kidney in order to finance the books we need for the courses.

Most of this blog post will cover the courses we`re on and towards the end we`ll probably talk a little sports. This is also a pretty long blog post, so brace yourselves, walls of text are coming.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

Le serious business segment mandated by Aalto BIZ, aimed at any and all future le serious business school students heading for HEC (Buttherestofyouarestillwelcometoreadit)

Logistics – Now, seeing as I`ve always been a huge fan of FedEx, I thought this course would totally be my thing. So far, so good, even though I have to admit that most of the areas covered thus far has pretty much been stuff I already know… (TuTa, spring 2012, never forget). I don`t think logistics really needs much of an explanation, so moving on!

Economic Problems & Policy Analysis – Ok so I`m a finance major. Now I like to think there are two kinds of finance majors, those who know what supply and demand is, and those who don`t give a shit. I`d like to think I`m somewhere in between. I`ve always been interested in the qualitative nature of economic theories rather than the quantitative interpretation and, so far, this course has given a lot of thought on the qualitative side of economics and how politics and especially the forming of so called political platforms drive real world economic decision such as the redistribution of wealth and how they might end up causing deadweight loss and thus, for example, reduce total welfare.

Organizational Behavior – Now, since most of my bachelor`s courses have focused on finance, I have never been able to grab some psychology courses, a subject that I am very keen on. So I finally go out and enroll on one, and let me say this, I`M ON FIRE BABY! Memorizin` n` applyin` psych theories on real world work place cases baby, you ain`t got nothing on me! Needless to say, moving on…

Consumer Behavior – Hey, Mo` psychology, Mo` betta. This course has been the most “eye-opening” so far. By using different proven psychological / data gathering methods, we are able to see what consumers really respond to in terms of advertising, product placement etc. Moreover, even though the results of the study of consumer behavior might be common-sense to some people, some parts of the field still amaze me, such as tracking the eye movements of consumers to see what part of an advertisement catches their attention. I could write about this for ages, but I won`t.

The most valuable thing Ville learned: A marketing course can actually be fascinating and make sense as long as it stays near the applications in day-to-day business.

Strategic Management in Organizations – At first, I thought this course name was one of those, where professors put fancy business words in a hat, shuffle them and pick them out by random, such as “Creative sustainability in strategic corporate social responsibility”. Now, let me just say that I was proven wrong. The course itself is basically the teachings of Michael Porter. Now what makes the course interesting is not the endless memorizing of different lists of management theories (KRHM Aalto University of Economics, really!?), it is the fact that the course comprises of a simulation where we get to apply these theories to a company we manage in a simulated reality. The group with the highest stock price in the end wins. Now, being a finance student, I already came up with the best strategy for this game, some window dressing for reputational reasons and then just reverse-split the stock in the end. VICTORY WILL BE OURS!
The most valuable thing Ville learned: The professor prefers Colombian coffee.

Management skills

For a guy who was watched almost all seasons of the Apprentice (both US and Finnish variants) this one was an easy pick for me. After all, being a CSO (Chief Something Officer) in some sort of company, working in perhaps a field of business (even a sector) has been a life-long dream of mine. Jokes aside, this course is easily the most interesting one I have at HEC. The professor has made a career at L’oréal, is a hockey fan and provides actual insights stemming from a couple of decades of managing people. Has my utmost respect for telling things as they are, even though it might not be pretty to hear(e.g. telling us all that we pretty much suck for not being familiar with some of the most famous authors in the field of management science). The lectures are heavily conversation based but that keeps things interesting, it’s also fun to hear about the management cultures in other countries from the other students. Exercises range from written group cases to individual oral presentations and role play. Also a great pick for general career tips and tricks. 5/5, would recommend.

Most valuable thing learned: things WILL go to hell at some point of your career and text books won’t prepare you for it.

Int’l economic environment
I’m not a big fan of the course so far. If watching graphs upon graphs while facing the wall (the classroom sucks) and listening to socialists give their opinions on the world is your piece of cake, by all means, take this course. The course has one major assignment, a 25 page report on a country of your choice, which is actually the best thing about the course, as it gives you a chance to learn about a foreign country in more detail.

Most valuable thing learned: People who don’t share my political views are stupid.'

Int’l financial management

Nothing special really, the name says it all. Has interesting stuff for both those with a finance background and those who really don’t give a fudge about CAPM. A pretty cool professor, though the poor guy doesn’t always seem to grasp elementary school mathematics. No assignments, a mid-term and a final exam. A traditional read-the-book course.

The most valuable thing learned: In North America, making a reasonable contribution to the class discussion can actually result in getting compliments from the professor after class. Dat culture shock.

Ok that does it for our studies so far, now if some of you are wondering why none of this makes any sense, don`t worry, we usually make no sense whatsoever. Now, it’s time for some…

Sports Baby!

Football feat. Budweiser

Since the last time, a lot has happened in terms of sports. We went to see the University of Montreal football team, the Carabins, play against some team I don’t even remember anymore. To be honest, I don’t even remember the final score of the game, the only thing I do remember is that it was probably one of the best sporting events I’ve seen in my entire life. “CANADA HAS NOTHING ON U.S. COLLEGE FOOTBALL”, yeah I know, but still the atmosphere was incredible. It was like a party mixed with sports, where whenever the home team guys even touched the ball, the crowd went nuts. The only slightly annoying thing was this guy sitting in the row behind us honking some goddamn vuvuzela from hell all the time (not an euphemism, he literally had a this cheap-ass looking horn that made the worst noise)

Cheerleaders photo-bombed by the refs

Between the college football games, practicing throwing a football and watching Tom Brady tribute videos, I think the football fan in me is starting to emerge. 

Now for the king of sports, hockey!

Pre-season has started, and I’m over the moon. The New Jersey Devils managed to beat the New York Rangers, which is always the best feeling in the world regardless if it’s a pre-season game, a regular season game or the freaking eastern conference final (which, when I last checked, we won beat the rangers 4-2)
We also got our first experience from the famous Bell Centre, where the Canadiens squared off with…. wait for it…..the Canadiens! It was a red vs. white charity game, where the Montréal Canadiens team was split and they played against each other. It was an ok hockey game, nothing really special though, since it lacked almost all the intensity that makes for an excellent hockey game. Nonetheless, the atmosphere looked promising and we are looking forward to the 17^th of October so as to see an actual regular season game in person!

Montréal Canadiens (Too many men on the ice anybody?)

In the meantime, see you at Chez Serge for the season opener against Toronto on October 1^st!

Mandatory picture of our new beer pong table

                             

Midlife Crisis at 22

A friend of mine once told me that when you move abroad it is almost as if you develop a new personality. It’s a weird psychological phenomenon (Editor’s note: I only studied psychology for a single mandatory course in high school, don’t worry, I know I’m full of it) what being given a clean slate in terms of social networks does to you. Only a few weeks ago I was 100 percent sure that I could get through my entire life without ever purchasing a snapback or being genuinely excited about a “new, up-and-coming neighborhood with some cool places you probably never even heard of” (i.e. turbo hipsterville, population: douchehundred). Considering that the life I lead will likely end in an early grave, having a midlife crisis at the ripe old age of 22 makes perfect sense.

Though my life is beginning to eerily remind the Asher Roth hit I love college (here’s a link for the uninitiated, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0), there is luckily still more to the life of the Finnish frat boys than beer pong, Bud Light and listening to our official Spotify playlist (aptly named Douchelist, contains e.g. Kanye West, Blink 182 and some smash hits from the greatest movies ever: Top Gun and Rocky IV). We actually had a really good lecture on the history and culture of Quebec. It’s pretty interesting how similar the story of Quebec is to that of Finland. Both are bilingual, and Quebec’s special rights in comparison to the other provinces of Canada really remind me of Finland’s status in 19^th century Russia. In the latest polls the separatist movement had actually more support than the Let’s-stay-with-Canada-they-have-Tim-Hortons-I-can’t-give-that-up movement. Maybe I have some hope of actually learning something useful here. After all, I guess you can’t really list Beer and Local beer pong champion of Parc Extension / Outremont as your special skills on LinkedIn.

Speaking of learning, we had our first proper lectures last week. The style is very North American, completely different when compared to Aalto. The professors are a lot more passionate, the group sizes notably smaller etc. It might be too early to judge, but maybe Lonely Planet wasn’t completely off-track dubbing the school as “the French-speaking equivalent to Harvard.”  I think we’ll write about all our courses in a separate le serious business entry (because we have to or we don’t receive funding for our blogging effort from our prestigious alma mater, Aalto School of Biznis)  

What the Fudge?

Last week was somewhat exhausting, since we discovered a nice lil’ mold infestation in our wash room after a major plumbing fudge-up involving gushing piping and improvised home-made buckets. We also learned that no-one really seems to believe in any adverse health effects of mold here in Quebec. When we return home we will start a mold-exterminating company, charging 10k for swiping the surfaces with a little bleach. Because that’s the go-to solution to every problem in Montréal, apparently. Have a hangover? DRENCH YOURSELVES IN BLEACH, IDIOTS.  

Toronto, the road-trip destination of champions

After a long week filled with housing issues, raccoon attacks and having one of the authors fall into a ditch, we decided it was high time for a proper vacation. We hopped a bus, but not just any-goddamn-bus, a MEGABUS, to Toronto, Ontario to find out that roughly 50 000 others had the exact same idea (labor day weekend, who knew?). We had the pleasure of strolling through downtown Toronto in a downpour, consulting some dozen hotels for vacancy (reservations are for cowards, Swedes and little girls). In the end everything worked out, and we even got to probably the most Canadian bar in town, Loose Moose. Unfortunately no loose moose were to be seen. 

CN tower going all YOLO

On day two in Toronto we decided to go see America’s favorite pastime, a game of baseball. Now, upon entering the stadium we immediately searched for the closest beer stand. I buy a bud light and show my ID, clean and simple right? WRONG. We get the cavity search equivalent of ID checks, where they brought experts around the world to check if our Finnish drivers licences were fake. They even had a book on the ID's of the world that had more pages than the bible. After a rough start, we might have been sipping on overpriced Bud Light and laughing at the slow pace of the sport in the first 30 minutes but by the bottom of the 8^th inning all three of us were hardcore Blue Jays fans and true believers in the sport of baseball

Blue Jays comeback from 2-0 to win it 4-2

Ye olde T-shirt section

Of course, we had to buy a T-shirt from T-city. Here's a picture of my shirt. I thought it was just an old lady playing beer pong,  but I was told by a very creditable Toronto street figure that it is actually Woody Allen playing beer pong. 

Until next time,

Holler.